Instrumental Characterization of Pretoria Clay Soil by XRF, XRD and SEM

Abstract

The products of refractory materials are used for lining furnace, incinerators and kilns among other uses and they have the potential of withstanding high temperature without deformation. The objective of the research was to charac-terize the clay soil sample collected from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. The sample, collected from a location Latitude 25.0969°S and Longi-tude 28.1624°E, was oven-dried, pulverized and sieved in the laboratory. Min-eralogical and elemental compositions of the sample were determined by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analytical methods. The XRF analysis revealed Fe2O3, Al2O3 and SiO2 as the major constituents, while the other elements occur in minor quantities. Mineralogically, the three samples contain Montmorillonite, Kaolinite and Bentonite, while Samples A contained Quartz in addition to ear-lier mentioned minerals, samples B and C contained Albite.